Arrow McLaren announced Ryan Hunter-Reay as its new Sporting Director. Hunter-Reay, who won the 2014 Indianapolis 500 and 2012 INDYCAR championship, recently competed at the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 in the No. 31 PrizePicks Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. (Photo courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series)

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

Arrow McLaren has appointed former INDYCAR champion Ryan Hunter-Reay as the organization’s new Sporting Director.

Winner of the 2012 series championship and 2014 Indianapolis 500 with Andretti Autosport, Hunter-Reay will report to Arrow McLaren Team Principal Tony Kanaan. The announcement was made Saturday in Madison, Ill., site of Sunday’s 10^th annual Bommarito Automotive Group 500 NTT IndyCar Series night race on the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval.

Hunter-Reay takes on his new job after competing for Arrow McLaren in the 110^th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 24. “Captain America” finished 32^nd in the 33-car field after triggering a two-car crash in Turn 2 of the 2.5-mile oval in his No. 31 PrizePicks Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. He was credited with completing 17 of the 200 scheduled laps.

As Sporting Director, RHR is tasked with maximizing on-track performance as well as the team’s commercial success. He will serve as a bridge between competition/race strategy, engineering, commercial efforts and continual development of the team’s three fulltime drivers _ Pato O’Ward of Mexico, Christian Lundgaard of Denmark and Californian Nolan Siegel.

Hunter-Reay also will serve as team ambassador, supporting partner engagement and business growth initiatives.

“Some of my best memories in racing go back to my time working together with Ryan in 2010,” said Kanaan, who was teamed with RHR at Andretti Autosport. “He played a big role in helping get that team pointed in the right direction and building a group that could compete for championships.”

A 51-year-old native of Brazil, Kanaan won the 2004 series championship with Andretti Green Racing and the 2013 Indy 500 with KV Racing Technology-SH Racing.

“We’re at a similar point now,” Kanaan said, “and I’m excited to welcome Ryan in this official role to help lead the team as we continue pushing this organization forward.”

RHR has been embedded with the team led by Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, since the 2026 season-opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., and will continue to broaden his involvement.

One of the most successful open-wheel racing drivers over the past two decades, Hunter-Reay has posted 18 wins, seven pole positions and 1,610 laps-led across 296 INDYCAR starts.

The team and will make a decision on a driver of a fourth car for in the 111^th Indianapolis 500 at a later date. 

“I am incredibly honored and excited to join Arrow McLaren as Sporting Director,” said Hunter-Reay, a 45-year-old resident of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “After 23 years competing at the highest level of American open wheel racing, I’m eager to bring my experience, passion and insight to contribute pushing this ambitious team forward. I’d like to thank Zak Brown, Tony Kanaan and Arrow McLaren board members for this opportunity.  

“Arrow McLaren has shown tremendous potential and possesses all the ingredients necessary to continue fighting for championships and Indy 500 wins as well as the coveted Triple Crown that McLaren Racing is aiming to achieve once again. Together with the talented drivers, engineers and crew, I will work relentlessly to help elevate our performance and deliver the results this iconic team, its fans and partners deserve.”

Sunday’s race _ Round Nine of the 2026 schedule _ is booked for 260-laps/325-miles. Live coverage is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. (EDT) on FOX and FOX One. The INDY NXT by Firestone series will contest its first oval track event of the season earlier in the day with coverage of the 75-lap/93.75-mile race to begin at 5:30 p.m. on FOX Sports’ FS1.

Audio coverage is available via INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls on SiriusXM Channel 218 and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.

INDYCAR Officiating has announced its next phase in governance separation and process transparency with the launch of official post-event reports, including use of technical penalty guidelines to provide a framework toward consistency across events. As necessary, post-event reports also will include summaries of technical and procedural distinction to increase clarity.

The reporting update is scheduled to begin with this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series event at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill.

This next step follows establishment of INDYCAR Officiating in December 2025. The not-for-profit organization is governed by a three-person Independent Officiating Board (IOB) of chairman Raj Nair, secretary/treasurer Ray Evernham and FIA appointee Ronan Morgan.

In April 2026, veteran motorsports officiating and competition executive Scot Elkins was named managing director of officiating to oversee race control, race stewards and technical inspection. Elkins reports directly to the IOB _ with no oversight from INDYCAR or Penske Entertainment officials _ to provide officiating governance and management.

“One of the takeaways from the initial months of INDYCAR Officiating was a need for thorough infraction communication and, in some cases, comparison to prior rulings to continue our goal of transparency and consistency in rule implementation,” Nair said in a statement from Indianapolis. “This post-event report will be clear in structure, process and findings.

“The board would like to thank the entire INDYCAR Officiating team for implementing this important step as we continue our mission. Working across the paddock with key stakeholders, we believe this structure will lead to a very positive result for the sport.”

INDYCAR Officiating Post-Event Reports will summarize officiating activity from each event and include penalties imposed under the NTT IndyCar Series rulebook and findings from technical inspections before and after qualifying and races. Post-event reports will be posted and made public during the week following an event at https://noticeboard.indycarofficiating.org.

Examples of content that will be summarized in the post-event report:

_ Race Recaps, including in-race penalties imposed _ for example, passing under yellow, emergency service in a closed pit or pit lane speed violations; incident reviews referred to the stewards and concluded with no further action.

_ Practice Recaps, including in-practice penalties imposed _ for example, pit lane speed violations, causing a yellow or red flag or entering the wrong pit box; technical inspection findings from qualifying and races; what was inspected and the extent and subject matter; explanation of any infraction and its resulting penalty-level classification and summary of technical or procedural distinction, where relevant.

In addition, to ensure consistency post-event reports will include the classification of technical penalties based upon the nature of the infraction via three levels:

_ Infraction Level 1, defined as a single-dimensional non-compliance, such as a height or size measurement outside tolerance, typically arising from wear, damage or assembly failure with no finding of altered component location or improper conduct.

_ Infraction Level 2, defined as a more significant compliance failure, such as an out-of-tolerance aerodynamic angle, driver or car weight, fuel-system or safety equipment matter, where the configuration is outside specification but does not involve modification of a spec part.

_ Infraction Level 3, defined as modification of a spec part, regardless of which assembly or subsystem it belongs to, or the installation of unapproved or altered components _ a departure from the car’s approved specification.

Associated penalties begin with point assessments and fines at Level 1 and rise to disqualification and suspensions at Level 3. Specific monetary fines, point assessments and other consequences imposed within a given infraction level remain at the sole discretion of INDYCAR Officiating.

“We have moved quickly but meticulously in applying this next step in greater officiating transparency,” Elkins said. “Our goals include increased consistency and clarity as these reports look to provide an additional resource toward structure and process. We look forward to implementing this next phase beginning at WWT Raceway.”

Post-event reports for INDY NXT by Firestone events will begin later this summer.